Land of passion and peace

From being a cradle of extreme sports to offering a refuge from stressful urban life, Xinjiang is weaving an incredible spell of magic on youth, report Xing Wen in Beijing and Mao Weihua in Urumqi.

Before you can bat an eyelid, he can leap from a tall building to another, sprint on a narrow parapet wall, vault over a flight of stairs, jump-spin through an open window and land on his feet outside. Meet 29-year-old Parhat Arkin who has a fetish for extreme sports like parkour, and loves filming his own daredevil routines and that of other athletes.

Growing up near the vast Gobi Desert in Aksu prefecture, Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, Parhat always had the gift of an indomitable spirit. The other qualities needed to become a traceur－balance, strength, dynamism, endurance and precision－came with practice.

In 2008, when he was just 15, Parhat saw French actor and stunt coordinator David Belle－popularly known as a "demigod of parkour"－display his phenomenal skills in a television documentary. The gutsy teenager decided to give parkour a go.